Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[HoneysuckleHills]

Ruth ~ I would get a cordless lithium battery powered one. I just got a makita that I love. I have had many black and deckers over the years and they just don't last (that's why I've had to buy so many! at least four)

I would offer to let you use mine, but I really think you should have your own, every girl should have a power screwdriver! I use mine all the time (you can borrow it, but you should still get your own )

Sara - thanks and I think you are right! It's high time I get my own tools and learn how to use them. I looked up Makita drills on Home Depot's site and I think I'll just go to the store. Did you get a 12v or 18v? I've been wanting to make frames for mosaic stepping stones. Now I want to make the plant cozies Greg posted. I should buy a saw, too.

 

[itsren]

Here's Hope:

So CUTE!

 

[itsren]

Well I'm glad to hear that, we have 20 birds, 4 are bantams, 3 ducks, the rest LF. Thanks for easing that concern!

I've heard that ducks stink real bad. Maybe you can blame it on them.

 

[Slinglings]

Quote: I have this set: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000V2DSE2/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00
I really love the screwdriver. I've always had a cordless drill and put screwdriver bits in it, I've never had an impact driver like this. This works so much better and requires less effort.
It comes with two batteries and they are interchangable, which is great when working on big projects.

I'm afraid to use any saw except a jig saw, which is really slow going for most things. Steve has a circular saw and table saw and he doesn't want me to use them

 

[itsren]

I am recouping from a wonderful allergic reaction to Zyrtek.
Throat closed up, went days & nights drooling & unable to swallow or eat, had to get myself off Zyrtek & ON Diphenhydramine fast (which took the swelling down within 20 minutes) Doc said he has never seen anyone allergic to Zyrtek...well, what can I say ?
I AM JUST SPECIAL !!!
Scared the daylights outta me.
Anyways, now I have a one year supply of Zyrtek (from Costco) that I have not opened & cannot use.
Free to good home.
We have been extremely busy building even in this 26 degree freeze, and got the roof almost all on.
Going through the hand & toe warmers here !

It could be something in it. I'm allergic to a lot of meds, too - and they don't know what it is, but 2 doctors have told me it is probably a common filler ingredient of some sort. I have to be careful with allergy meds as well. My throat swells closed easily when I take many meds. I avoid medication like the plague, if at all possible now.

 

[Hinotori]

Quote:

DEAR LORD, SOMETIMES I WISH I LIVED IN THE MIDDLE OF 100ACRES...BUT I'M SURE PEOPLE WOULD STILL FIND WAYS TO ANNOY ME! HOPE THINGS GET BETTER FOR YOU AND YOUR WACKO NEIGHBOR MOVES OUT AND IS REPLACED BY SOMEONE WITH SENSE!!!!

I've done the more-than-100-acres thing, and it just means whatever crazy neighbors are out there can come on the place, cut fences, and shoot your 200 pound Angus bull because they thought it was a dear.

One of my great uncles had a guy come on to his property and shoot one of his cows when I was a teenager back in the early 90s. The guy argued with the police even saying he was legal because he had a cow (elk) tag. He'd opened 5 gates (and left them open, other cattle got out) and was a good 2 miles down the dirt road going well into the property. One of the hands had closed the main gate and locked it for the day. The guy came to the house asking them to unlock the gate so he could leave. The cops hit him with all sorts of charges. Turned out the guy was from in town Portland and had never seen an elk in his life.

Then when I was about 8, my uncle went hunting for ducks on my grandmas property. The property was fenced posted with no trespass and hunting signs. My uncle took the pet mallard drake with him to try and trick the wild ones. That duck loved to go for walks with people he knew. Some teenagers came on the property and got up on my uncle and pointed their gun at the little duck standing next to him. He told them not to shoot his duck but they did anyway. Cops came out and there were huge fines. Trespassing, killing the domestic livestock, firing a weapon towards my uncle.

That was the duck that got kicked out of town. One of my other uncles was living in town at that time and the drake was his pet. It decided to fly over the fence around the yard and attack the neighbor GSDs. Ripped the hair off the back of their heads and did some good damage. After the third time when the neighbors caught the duck in the act, the cops came. They told my uncle he had to remove his duck from town (ducks were legal). So the duck went to Grandma's house. There he delighted in randomly chasing and attacking people. He ran my Mom into the front door and she broke the glass center.

 

[itsren]

No idea how many rats may be "in the wild" out there.

They live in the city too. Bummer. I wish they'd keep to the wild.

 

[itsren]

Just an FYI I snuck out a couple days ago when it was warmer (40*) and peeked inside my bee hives.

2 of 3 are dead

I'm so sorry. What a bummer. I love honey bees. Hate yellow jackets - but love the honey bees and bumblers. We also let mason bees live in the weep holes of our windows. I know, pathetic, but they seem to like it there.

Speaking of bees... I have a funny yellow jacket or wasp story. Not exactly sure what it was.

I think it was last week - I was brushing my teeth with my Sonic Air toothbrush. A few days earlier, I had looked inside and noticed it seemed dark inside the area that is usually empty, but the collar covers, but I didn't have time to remove the collar and clean it out. I thought "Ewww. That looks pretty bad." Forgot about it, and continued using it. Ewww. So, one afternoon I was brushing my teeth and set the toothbrush top back on up on the cabinet where there is a metal piece that the magnet sticks to. I started brushing my hair and began to wonder why my toothbrush was still buzzing when it wasn't attached to the base any more. I looked up and watched a massively huge yellow jacket or wasp climbing down out of the base. It hung on to the bottom of the toothrbrush head and was buzzing it's wings as if trying to dry them. I just about freaked, but decided to see if I could grab the toothbrush head and take it outside. The huge bee fell into the sink and I washed it down the drain. OMG! That was probably one of the weirdest experiences of my life. The toothbrush head went straight into the garbage even though it wasn't very old. I couldn't get over the gross factor that I had been brushing my teeth with that thing so near my mouth.

 

[itsren]

Quote:
I have a friend who's mom owns Trees and Bees: http://www.treesnbees.com/indexbees.html I've been to their store. I believe they sell bee packages. Very nice people.

 

[itsren]

Man, that sucks. Too many bees are being lost every year. I have problems with pollination in my yard, even though I don't use any pesticides at all and grow tons of flowers for the bees and hummingbirds. Somehow the trees and bees just aren't waking up at the same time in the spring.

We don't use pesticides either (but the neighbors do

). We did the Great Sunflower Project (http://www.greatsunflower.org/) a few years ago with our kids and I started paying a lot more attention to them after we did that project. Last year I was pretty happy because I saw more honeybees than I'd seen in years past. But, we did something silly like getting chickens - and my Caunnie loves to eat bees. Oh, that girl!

She can jump and catch them easily. Oh!